Re: Fixed size art, artist needed, Game system, Read please

Robert Schultz (ber...@ncinter.net) wrote:
: I'm desiging a new RPG multiplayer system that allows telnet connections.
: The networking already all works, player handling, etc. And now i'm desiging
: the game.

Ok, I'll bite..

: Unlike your normal telnet MUDS, this is going to be quite different.
 [snip details]

From what you say, your system isn't that different from MUDs - it might
not be an average MUD, but it certainly wouldn't seem unusual at least by
LPMUD standards. There certainly are far weirder things done in LPC[1].

Of course, it doesn't have to be unique, it just has to be good. If your
system, and the world it presents, are well designed and implemented, the
idea has the potential to become a great game. It also has the potential
to become a flop.

: all the same except different room names, we will have a quality world with
: good descriptions and 'artwork' for each area/room. this system focuses more
: on the GAME rather than on the chatting that SOME muds seem to focus on)

Have you already focused on the world, then? Your post gives the
impression that you've started from the technical side of things - a good
approach in the sense that a good technical foundation is essential for
playability, but until your game world is fully designed and implemented
it's impossible to say whether your project is going to be the greatest
multiplayer adventure ever or just another half-baked mud with a twist.

: However, the ART picture ascii art 'section/view' will remain the same size.
: Now since I believe most people will have bigger than 80x25 in terms of x and y
: for columns and line size, I'm not afraid to make the art section as big
: as it NEEDS to be in order to gain the most flexibility for the art and
: room pictures, etc.

And to answer your question; Assume 80x24, and allow for even smaller
screen sizes if possible. It's as much of a standard as there is, after
all, and there'll be many people who, even if they can, are reluctant to
spend too much screen real estate on your telnet window.

I personally wouldn't make the ascii art area more that 30 characters
wide, maybe even smaller if other parts of the display need space[2].
Remember that you're going to need lots of high quality ascii scenes,
preferably detailed and filling the whole area, and the time it takes
to create them does correlate to some extent with their size.

I think pretty small images would suffice, in fact, since their main
use - in addition to creating an atmosphere for the place - would be to
provide visual reference points. Small, almost iconic pictures, without
too much detail but with every character carefully chosen, are quick to
recognize, and can, through the players' imagination, create a much
more vivid atmosphere that larger, detailed but often monotonic[3] pics
that look more like blueprints than sketches.

: game players, etc. on how big I need the art space. Of course, anyone who
: wants to help out with actual art, and the desiging and creation of the world
: I'd be glad to have help.

Assuming that the system really does live up to your promises, I'd love
to participate. Alas, I won't be having much time for such things at
least for a year of so. :-( So I'll just give some advice while I can,
and my advice is to concentrate on the gameplay and the world first, and
- while making plans in your mind is most useful - not to hardline the
outward appearance before the final implementation phase.


[1] Such as fully graphical MUDs with custom client software, or - for
example - FTP servers. Of course, while it's quite true that you can
implement pretty much anything in LPC, a lot of LPMUDders are quick to
mention that while conveniently forgetting that most people still use
it to implement simple, basic hack'n'slash MUDs.

[2] Although you'll notice that ascii pictures tend to have a natural
size that is different for each picture, so any fixed size is going to
cause difficulties at some point. This'll be even more true if you're
going to be - as is likely - using pictures from several artists. This
is one more reason to keep the image size small, incidentally, since
smaller images, while often harder to make look right, are faster to
mass-produce.

[3] Because you simply cannot consider each character out of 360*n
independently, and because such over-abstraction is a common problem[4]
in ascii art. (I always try to draw my ascii art in an impressionist
way. Combined with the natural rigidity of the medium, it seems to
produce just about okay pictures.)

[4] For some definitions of "problem". Sometimes it can be exactly what
you want, of course.

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